George Wallace

George Wallace (August 25, 1919 – September 13, 1998) was once a racist Governor of Alabama and main antagonist of desegregation. His actions lead to the Bloody Sunday event in 1965 on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. National Guard soldiers and racists brutally attacked protesters lead by Reverend Martin Luther King Junior with guns and barbed wire bats. The inexcusable actions by the Alabama National Guard blocked interstate traffic on U.S. Route 80 between San Diego, California and Tybee Island, Georgia, effectively cutting of the major transcontinental highway, an important artery in commercial transportation. The National Guard and Wallace tried to wrongfully pin their actions on the protesters. Today, US 80 has been dedicated as a trail memorializing the civil rights struggle within the state of Alabama. The attacks on the bridge instigated national outrage towards the state and Wallace. President Lyndon B. Johnson nationalised the National Guard and allowed a march from Selma to Montgomery along US 80. In his presidential campaign in 1968, Wallace was nearly assassinated by gunshot. Around 1972, he decided to end his racist beliefs and became keen on ending racism within the United States. Wallace made a public apology to the black population within his state which forgave him for his actions in return. In his later anti-racist years, Wallace was looked upon kindly by black voters within the state of Alabama and received the majority of their votes. The epiphany of George Wallace transformed him from a villain into a hero.

Wallace was portrayed by actor Tim Roth, known for playing villains, in the 2014 movie "Selma".